The present invention pertains to an implant for passing blood directly between a chamber of the heart and a coronary vessel.
The placing of artificial shunts or other durable passageways in the heart wall to connect heart chambers containing oxygenated blood with coronary arteries also is known. These devices and the techniques for placing them in the heart are described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,019, issued Aug. 31, 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Such implants typically are placed in the wall of the heart to allow oxygenated blood to flow into a partially or completely occluded coronary artery as an alternative to more traditional or conventional vein graft coronary arterial bypass procedures.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a transmyocardial implant is disclosed for establishing a blood flow path through a myocardium between a heart chamber and more than one coronary vessel. The implant includes a rigid housing sized to be inserted into and retained within the myocardium. The rigid conduit is sufficiently rigid to withstand collapse in response to contraction forces of the myocardium. Additionally, the implant includes a plurality of conduits, each conduit having a first end secured in the rigid housing and a second end sized to be secured to a coronary vessel. The conduits are blood compatible. The rigid housing and the conduits define blood flow paths from the heart chamber to more than one coronary vessel.
A variety of additional advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and will be apparent from the description. It is to be understood that both the foregoing material and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only, and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed.